Is it time for serious changes at the club

[Colesman Ballz]

As for being proud of the club, I think the Trust have done a good job and there are many happy memories over the past 20 years. But pride for most people is about doing well at something. Look at Chiefs fans. They are on a permanent high.

Certainly the ex Flybe employees who tickets were voided aren't on a high, and that was a PR disaster. The families who sit in their main stand are pretty unimpressed too, They are abolishing child discounts, and season ticket holders have been told that unless they pay full price for child seats next season, they will be relocated to the "cheap seats" behind the goal. Given that adult tickets in the main stand are priced up to £62, that is an outlay of £250 for your "nuclear family" of four to watch a match !

 

[ex_user1234]

Certainly the ex Flybe employees who tickets were voided aren't on a high, and that was a PR disaster. The families who sit in their main stand are pretty unimpressed too, They are abolishing child discounts, and season ticket holders have been told that unless they pay full price for child seats next season, they will be relocated to the "cheap seats" behind the goal. Given that adult tickets in the main stand are priced up to £62, that is an outlay of £250 for your "nuclear family" of four to watch a match !

I don't agree with those prices, and I disagreed with the way they handled the Flybe situation, but it would be churlish not to admit that they have been anything other than incredibly successful these past few years and have become a household name in the UK, which has made Chiefs fans immensely proud. And I say that as someone who never watches rugby and doesn't even like the sport. You simply have to admire what they've done and where they've come from. Most of all they believed.

 

[ex_user1234]

I've already posted what I get out of the matchday. Getting a win is PART of it, just a part. We've done that quite a lot recently as well so no problem, nothing to massively change, nothing for anyone to need to come in and make "serious" changes even if they are desperate to do so.

That's because you like being in a cosy bubble, which is fair enough. Cosy bubbles don't last forever though, as we're about to find out in these next 12 months.

 

[Rosencrantz]

It's true that management by committee generally gets you nowhere. Clearly the Trust would have to adapt to attract the right kinds of entrepreneurs.

There's good businessmen and bad businessmen in life. Just like there's good people and bad people in life. I'm a strong believer that each person should be judged on their own merits.

Absolutely as to judging each person on their own merits. You say clearly the club would have to adapt to attract the right kind of entrepreneurs, I would go further and say the right kind of entrepreneurs would also have to adapt to the club ownership model. It has to be a two way street if they are to involve themselves successfully into the running of the club.

Also as far as I understand, the "committee" does not run the club, it governs. Maybe the right kind of entrepreneurs can inject some dynamism to the system, but they would also have to temper some of their normal instincts to go with it so an effective medium could be achieved.

**Not saying all business people have rampant ego's and the patience of a toddler desperate for the potty but, you know

 

[IndoMike]

Ed. I think you underrate the importance of the character of a football club. Football is a business - it's, true - but people don't identify with it as a business.
I had a friend who was a really nice bloke, but he was always wanting more. He invested money in a big house with a lot of land, started up some businesses. His character changed. He started to feel he was invincible and got a bit over- confident.
Then things started to go pesr-shaped financially and he started gambling to release his stress and get some money back. Of course, he went bankrupt, had associated problems, and in the end was on his own and had to couch surf.
I don't want City's character to change. I don't want City to go bankrupt. I don't want City to lose its friends.
Ambition for ambition's sake has no value.
SJP is the soul of the club and it's location is the history of the club. Many fans don't want to lose that.Would our fans really be happier to move out of town and be following a Championship club? And where would all the new fans come from to help pay for it? We're still a small town in a rural area. The folks down here like to keep it simple, friendly, cosy. Not many prawn sandwich types around Exeter.
Finally, the danger is that we look across to the Chiefs with envy and think "I'll have some of that". But the Chiefs had a major benefactor who was in it for live and for money. A really smart guy (although a bit of a kant sometimes it seems). But the Chiefs operate in a totally different environment whereby they could jump from nothing to big shots in the blink of an eye due to the lack of competotion and the glory hunters followed them..If anything happens to their CEO it might all start to crumble.
I used to feel like you did and think that the club was run by amateurs and had no ambition. But now I see the club has a nice new stand, a successful academy, does a lot of community work and seems a happy and stress-,free entity. I'm very satisfied with that
If people want to see top class football every week they can just switch on the box. or their hand-phones.
Finslly, in my opinion our aim during the next five years it to become a stable, League 1 club, whilst retaining our ground and character. I don't want City to become a white elephant club or financially stretched or stressed

 

[StudentGrecian]

At the end of the day the only owners we could attract are going to be in it for the money. They aren't going to want to be splashing out on new stadiums or investing millions into our infrastructure because its too risky an investment. Just look at Sunderland, new owners came in and tried to keep costs minimal because they expected them to gain promotion back into the championship straight away, 18 months later they were put back up for sale again having gone nowhere.

IMO the best chairman in the EFL is Andy Holt at Accrington, but are we going to be lucky enough to find a multi-millionaire that loves our club and wants to invest millions into making it more profitable, whilst keeping it sustainable? Probably not.
Unpopular opinion, but we aren't a sleeping giant like many on here seem to think. People like Steve Dale, Amar Alkadhi, Ken Anderson buy lower league clubs because they feel they can profit from them and when it all goes wrong they pull out all finances and the club is left to rot. I would always prefer the trust to outside investment from an owner who knows very little about our club.

*Also the Chiefs is a poor comparison, they were a top half championship side before properly investing in their club, not a 4th Division side. And investing in a championship rugby club in 2005 would have needed significantly less money than a football league club would in 2020 to make it successful.

 

[lamrobhero]

So you go to games not wanting to win?

I go to games wanting to win but if the Club was not Trust owned it would not be me that is winning.

 

[lamrobhero]

I think we could liven up the Trust AGM by having a Dragon's Den type event. Ed's superhero entrepreneurs make their presentation and are grilled by the Trust Board. But I am forgetting meetings/dialogue are for wimps and only those of us who are superhero entrepreneurs would understand anyway.

 

[fred binneys head]

That's because you like being in a cosy bubble, which is fair enough. Cosy bubbles don't last forever though, as we're about to find out in these next 12 months.

Would we be in a better position now if we had a bigger squad with better players on significantly higher wages then?

 

[ryancooper327]

Ed. I think you underrate the importance of the character of a football club. Football is a business - it's, true - but people don't identify with it as a business.
I had a friend who was a really nice bloke, but he was always wanting more. He invested money in a big house with a lot of land, started up some businesses. His character changed. He started to feel he was invincible and got a bit over- confident.
Then things started to go pesr-shaped financially and he started gambling to release his stress and get some money back. Of course, he went bankrupt, had associated problems, and in the end was on his own and had to couch surf.
I don't want City's character to change. I don't want City to go bankrupt. I don't want City to lose its friends.
Ambition for ambition's sake has no value.
SJP is the soul of the club and it's location is the history of the club. Many fans don't want to lose that.Would our fans really be happier to move out of town and be following a Championship club? And where would all the new fans come from to help pay for it? We're still a small town in a rural area. The folks down here like to keep it simple, friendly, cosy. Not many prawn sandwich types around Exeter.
Finally, the danger is that we look across to the Chiefs with envy and think "I'll have some of that". But the Chiefs had a major benefactor who was in it for live and for money. A really smart guy (although a bit of a kant sometimes it seems). But the Chiefs operate in a totally different environment whereby they could jump from nothing to big shots in the blink of an eye due to the lack of competotion and the glory hunters followed them..If anything happens to their CEO it might all start to crumble.
I used to feel like you did and think that the club was run by amateurs and had no ambition. But now I see the club has a nice new stand, a successful academy, does a lot of community work and seems a happy and stress-,free entity. I'm very satisfied with that
If people want to see top class football every week they can just switch on the box. or their hand-phones.
Finslly, in my opinion our aim during the next five years it to become a stable, League 1 club, whilst retaining our ground and character. I don't want City to become a white elephant club or financially stretched or stressed

Wish I could like this 1,000 times. As I’ve said on here before, I don’t care where City play. In my short time on this earth I’ve seen them in 3 divisions, I’d happily watch them in NLS too if it came to it. I have no desire to be a Championship club and I don’t know why people think we have a right/should be there. Just my thoughts!